This publication is one result of the thematic session ‘Contested borders and identities’ organised at the conference entitled Contested identities, contested cultures and contested rights – Change and challenges in the Northern European periphery held on 23–25 September 2009 at the University of Tromsø, Norway. The conference was organised and financed by the university's Citizenship, encounters and place enactment in the north (CEPIN) group, a multi-disciplinary research school that examines globalisation and modernisation processes in the north. The conference gathered researchers from 19 countries representing different fields of social sciences and addressed various issues relating to political, economic, social and cultural processes in the north.

Over a period of 70 years, the lifestyles and belief systems of indigenous Siberian peoples were transformed by Soviet policy, based on the idea of assimilation and homogenisation of the peoples in its territory, in compliance with the idea of a ‘people's friendship’. The fall of the Soviet Union has given people the opportunity to rebuild their identity, as well as to provide a means of cultural revival for each ethnic community. The case study of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in northern Siberia shows a new relationship, already started during perestroika and developing between the Russian Federation and its peoples. This relationship favours the development of each people's culture within the broader context of their integration into Russian society. The issue of the instrumentalisation of indigenous peoples’ cultural and religious heritage is part of a broader picture of a global affirmation of peoples’ indigenousness. The identification of ethnic Sakha (Yakuts) with other northern peoples is a means of entering the international political arena, pushing far away the geopolitical and cultural boundaries imposed by the Russian Federation and highlighting the idea of a circumpolar civilisation.

This paper refers to some aspects of the theoretical anthropological debate on the perception of time and I shall argue, following Ingold (2000) that amongst the Sámi people time is understood as an unfolding of interrelated tasks, rather than as a linear succession of standardised and arbitrary units. I also argue that the Sámi perception of time is not opposed to the western perception, but rather entails a different approach to the significance of clock time. The results of my fieldwork, conducted among the Sámi people in Finnish Lapland, lend support to the idea that the basis for a people's shared understanding and subjective experience of time lies in the interaction of skilful agents in carrying out diverse but interrelated tasks. It is not sufficient to live in a place, to belong to a particular ethnic group or to be engaged in the same subsistence activity to perceive time in a certain fashion. No matter how much we change the combination of actors, the perception of time is generated in each case through situated activity within the landscape.

During the last decades the Arctic has become more central on the world stage. However, despite increased interest how much do people really know about ‘the north’ and the ‘northern people’? The aim of this article is to chronicle a research project by students, who saw themselves as northerners, that used video to capture northerners’ definitions of the north, as well as asking the community about what they wanted newcomers and southern Canada to know about the north. The group also embarked on a new discipline of northerners studying ‘the south’. 43 students interviewed 95 people in the Beaufort Delta, Northwest Territories and 25 people in Edmonton, Alberta. The student researchers’ responses and that of their interviewees are some of the most direct messages on how northerners view their identity and that of their fellow southern Canadians. This project created a video tool to share, educate, and commence a dialogue between people about the north straight from the source.

This paper addresses two processes of social and cultural mobilisation. The first example is a regional movement, as manifested in social and cultural expressions of a north Norwegian identity that was particularly marked in the 1970s and early 80s. The other is the Saami movement, coming out strongly at about the same time, and being part of a global process of indigenous mobilisation. It is argued that although they are similar in the way they articulate a sense of identity and belonging in contrast to an overarching and encompassing state, they are different in their stated objectives, in their relation to the state and the type of achievements gained. The north Norwegian regional movement strived for inclusion into a wider national cultural tradition, and integration has been achieved by broadening the definition of what is considered Norwegian culture. The objective of the Saami movement was the opposite: to gain recognition as a people with a distinct culture, different from but equal in value with the Norwegian culture. The article is introduced by a theoretical discussion of the issues involved, framing the analysis of communicative strategies.

The present article focuses on children from Russia, who immigrated to the northern part of Norway in the end of the 1990s and in the first decade of the 21st century. The Russian immigration to north Norway is particularly strong, and therefore it is an obvious choice to focus on this group if one wishes to study Russian immigration to Norway. By studying the immigrants in Sør-Varanger, will we discover some objective tendencies and peculiarities of adaption of Russian immigrants in Norway at large? Attention to children-immigrants’ life in school and outside school, their friendships, their contacts with their homeland and attitudes toward future work, allows us to understand their position, views and level of mutual understanding with those people who surround them in the new country. In the present article special attention is also paid to the parents, first and foremost the mothers, who brought the children to north Norway, and their opinions about the welfare of their children in the new country as well as their own well-being. In many ways these children and their mothers from northwest Russia make a shining example of a successful establishment of a new life style in a foreign country. One may ask, however, is it too successful?

In coastal north Norway the Saami people have lived in a close relationship with Norwegians or Norse people for a thousand years or more. This relationship has been articulated in various ways over the centuries, and this article argues that in parts of the region it took a rather intimate form based on the shared exploitation of the dominant marine and terrestrial niches, a common class position as tenant farmers, a varying practice of inter-ethnic marital relations and the effects of a bilateral kinship system. Various forms of inter-ethnic contact and exchange may thus have served to reduce the relevance of ethnic difference in daily life, as suggested by Barth's argument about the integrative effect of transactions, but contrary to his argument about the transactional reinforcement of ethnic boundaries. Contrary to the intention, governmental assimilatory efforts served to reproduce the boundary as the basis for a ranked society and left coastal Saami individuals in some confusion as to how to define themselves, often opting for a mixed category of Norwegian and Saami, labelled ‘Northerner’. Ethno-political emancipation in recent years has tended to put pressure on this identity construction and promoted a dichotomised identity as either Saami or Norwegian.

The Deh Cho Dene have been negotiating territorial land since early European settlement. This paper argues that the changing needs of Deh Cho Dene society has changed their concept of property and this transformation has evolved with a responsibility to conserve cultural practice and ecological balance in Deh Cho Dene territorial lands. The article considers how the changing need of European society addresses property and ownership in the context of basic human rights and consumer interests. It uses the theories of Macpherson, Locke, and Marx to construct a model to understand the property relations that exist in the Deh Cho Dene region. Accordingly, the paper addresses oral narratives to give historical insight into the relations between neighbouring tribal groups and their understanding of territorial boundaries. An account of present day negotiations highlights the various initiatives taken to protect traditional interests and uphold historical claim to the territory. The negotiation of joint ventures and property ownership has evolved with concerns over ecological sustainability and the protection of a subsistence lifestyle, which is critical for the social and economic interests of Deh Cho Dene culture, and is closely connected to the land.

Arctic Norway is a region with a shortage of highly skilled professionals and international expertise, in many work sectors. Fast growing cites attract people from other regions and also high skilled migrants. It is a paradox that skilled migrants often fail to get qualified work in the local labour market. To understand this and to capture the complexity of labour market participation, this article draws on interviews with recruitment agencies and highly skilled migrants, attending a recruitment programme initiated by the ‘Confederation of Norwegian Business and Industry in Norway’. This paper draws on recent literature on highly skilled migration and analyses the complex and relational sides of labour market integration for skilled migrants in an urban Arctic town.

Pavel Sergeyevich Rozhkov was captain of the whale catcher Slava 3 on the first Soviet whaling cruise in the Antarctic, which took place in 1946–1947. He wrote an exceptionally frank and detailed account of the cruise, for those times, which was published in a Lithuanian newspaper and is now presented here for the first time in English translation.

As the axis powers were denied access to data from international weather stations under allied control, soon after the outbreak of World War II Germany had to establish her own network of manned and automatic weather stations throughout the north Atlantic. These operations were primarily run by the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe. In Greenland, several manned weather stations were established by the former. The two most successful of those were Holzauge and Bassgeiger in Northeast Greenland, each in operation for almost an entire year in 1942–1943 and 1943–1944 respectively. The allied forces, in return, had established the North-East Greenland Sledge Patrol in 1941, in order to defend the Northeast Greenland coast against German activities. In 2007 and 2008, archaeologists and historians from the National Museum of Denmark investigated the remains of the allied station at Eskimonæs on Clavering Ø (Clavering Island) and the German station Holzauge at Hansa Bugt on Sabine Ø (Sabine Island).

Tourism in Antarctica has grown substantially over recent decades and has diversified into different activities and modes of transport. This paper presents a first attempt to explore the implications of this diversification trend for Antarctic tourist experiences, wildlife and onsite management. Evidence from a passenger survey, participatory observations and expert interviews using video elicitation has been collected during, and in the context of, a diving expedition cruise. The data suggests that significant differences can be detected in the way divers and non-divers experience aspects of the trip, most notably regarding guides. The results also indicate that diverse activities generate a broader variance in attitudes and behaviours, which may have repercussions for wildlife, site use and onsite management. Given the diversification trend it is timely and necessary to revisit and consistently enforce site guidelines and visitor guidelines with an eye on multi-activity trips. In addition, further studies on the implications of this trend are needed by means of case studies, surveys looking at a wider range of tourist trips, and monitoring programmes assessing wildlife behaviour and impacts.

The academic study of local and regional history in Sweden took on a quite new form and significance in the 18th century. Humiliating defeats in wars had brought the kingdom's period of greatness to an end and forced the crown to re-evaluate the country's position and image and reconsider the internal questions of economic efficiency and settlement. One aspect in this was more effective economic and political control over the peripheral parts of the realm, which meant that also the distant region of Kemi Lapland, bordering on Russia, became an object of systematic government interest. The practical local documentation of this area took the form of dissertations prepared by students native to the area under the supervision of well known professors, reports sent back by local ministers and newspaper articles. The people responsible for communicating this information may be said to have functioned as ‘mimic men’ in the terminology of H.K. Bhabha. This supervised gathering and publication of local information created the foundation for the nationalist ideology and interest in ordinary people and local cultures that emerged at the end of the century and flourished during the 19th century.

Each year Polar Record calls upon numerous scholars to assist in the demanding and intensive refereeing and peer-review procedures for manuscripts submitted for publication. These individuals give generously of their time and expertise to help ensure that a high academic quality is maintained in Polar Record. During the preparation of the four issues for 2011, the following individuals participated in the review and refereeing process. Our deep appreciation for their assistance is offered to all.